Today we woke up late and headed into Sao Paulo with Leandro at about 12pm. The traffic was really busy, and it was a saturday! First we saw the first bridge that is suspended by cables and curved at the same time. It is still under construction in parts, I took some photos but it is hard to see the curve as it's so big! We also saw lots of favelas and expensive areas, it is kinda sad to see such a big difference between rich and poor, a lot of the houses in the favela looked like they could fall down at any moment!
We drove through a bit of the favela, Lots of people own little shops as part of their house, like a hairdresser or little bar etc. Yesterday when we visited Andres Grandparents I noticed the house across the street sold icecreams and had a portable bbq to make snacks to sell at lunch time. This kind of system seems to work very well, it seems anything you want is always in walking distance and the people tend to be a lot more social than in perth.
We drove around quite a bit of Sao Paulo checking out the buildings before parking to have a closer look at some. We saw the art museum which is supported only on four corners and has a massive open area underneath. I have seen the design before but can't remember who designed it. We then found a grand but slightly run down old building that looked like it could have at one stage been somebody's mansion. Now it is in repairs and some people use the grounds just outside as an animal shelter (for cats and dogs).
We also when to a cafe called Casa de Pao do quiejo (House of bread of cheese) which Andre's dad had job with renovating their kitchens. I tried some Pao do queijo (of course) some pastry with chicken and cheese and quindim (a very sweet pudding with coconut). They also sell brigadeiros everywhere here ranging in size from very tiny truffle like to huge muffin like. To drink we had pineapple with mint and cashew juice, yes you read correct - cashew! Was a very interesting flavour, with a slight hint of the nut flavour but more fruity.
Next we got back in the car and drove to some markets that sell antiques, crafts and clothes. It was huge and very busy, Andre said sometimes you can see famous Brasilian actors there. There was so much to see, everything ranging from strange masks, antique door and cabinet handles of every shape, records, furniture and art. We bought a sergio mendes record that we are going to listen to tonight :) I also spotted some Bauhaus type prints but they were very expensive - going up from $600. They were really impressive though, made by some brasilian artists in the 60s, they were limited edition pieces, really bright and geometric, with incredibly crisp edges. I also found some Marcel Breuer chairs that were $800 each!
As we drove back through Sao Paulo I saw some police men and decided to get my camera out to take a photo. There were about to pull a motor boy over (motorcyclist). As I was taking photos I noticed he got off his bike with his hands above his heads at one of the police men had his gun drawn! Apparently that is just procedure over here, but was still exciting to see! (don't worry mum, the cops are the good guys)
So we went home for some traditional feijoada that Arleide started cooking yesterday! It was really yummy, I just tried not to see the parts of the pig within the mix! Afterwards we went to see one of Andres friends as it was his birthday party. It was held at a fancy place called Stone's music bar which played lots of rock songs - they were singing really well in english! We met a few of Andres friends there and I spoke lots of portuguese with some of the girlfriends. |A few people, including Leandro (guy whos birthday it was) spoke english quite well so it made it easy when I wasn't understanding portuguese. Without realising we stayed untill about 2am! We were having so much fun, before going home we stopped at 'habibs' a arabic fast food retaurant and had some really cheap food; mini pizzas and kibe, and custard tarts, all about 20c each! I think it is their version of our late night kebabs and americas late night mexican.
So that night I think we crashed about 3 or 4am!
